Constitutional Law

Category archives for Constitutional Law

The Institute for Justice is asking the Supreme Court to rehear the Kelo case, arguing that in just the few weeks since the decision was handed down, much has changed that should make them reconsider their decision. It’s a desperate move, not likely to succeed, but they have a point about what has happened in…

In my appearance on the Harry Browne show, we focused a lot on how to respond to the Kelo decision and what could be done to protect property rights. I urged the listeners to organize at the state and local level by putting propositions on state ballots to require that eminent domain be invoked only…

Jonathan Chait has an essay in Friday’s LA Times about Robert Bork and the myth of his unfair demonization and martyrdom. Among the partisan and pedestrian right (though in many cases not the intellectual right), Bork is still viewed as The One Who Started It All, the Supreme Court nominee whose case turned the nomination…

I’ve long thought that the Constitution Party – which postures as being libertarian-minded – was quite badly named. They’re really a far right – and I mean far right – social conservative party with a very disturbing vision of what the constitution means. And here’s more proof of that. Their chairman and former Presidential candidate,…

I am back after a few days away, and while I was gone there has been some discussion in the comments about judicial activism. I don’t wanna go back and answer all of those comments individually at this point, having written a great deal on the subject in the past. Let me give a brief…

After reading the majority opinion in the McCreary case, involving the posting of the Ten Commandments in a county courthouse, I am convinced that the ruling is extremely good news for those of us who are active in fighting the attempts of creationists (in whatever form) to weaken science education in public schools. But in…

Slate has published a fairly thorough analysis of all of the potential people said to be on Bush’s short list for a Supreme Court nomination. Well worth reading, but bear in mind my usual disclaimer that it is always best to look up the actual rulings for yourself rather than accepting the way others portray…

The inevitable result of the Kelo decision: With Thursday’s Supreme Court decision, Freeport officials instructed attorneys to begin preparing legal documents to seize three pieces of waterfront property along the Old Brazos River from two seafood companies for construction of an $8 million private boat marina. The court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that cities…

Bill Kristol is making the case that Justice O’Connor will step down in the next week, not Chief Justice Rehnquist, and that Bush will nominate Gonzales to replace her. That would certainly be an interesting development.

The notion of limited government took another enormous body blow today with the Supreme Court’s astonishingly wrongheaded decision in the Kelo case (see the text of the decision here). It was 5-4, with the 4 most conservative justices – Rehnquist, Scalia, O’Connor and Thomas – dissenting. There is grand irony here. Despite the common perception…